News via Daily Times
Solid action in one province against evidently identified hot spots should provide the precedent and strengthen the case for similar steps being launched in other parts of the country. To help build the pressure for such action, it is necessary that more people recognise this problem
Daily Times reported not long ago how a famous restaurant on MA Jinnah Road in Quetta had succumbed to threats against serving meals to women, not even in separate ‘family rooms’. Whether this restaurant will revoke this ban, or if more restaurants in the city will follow suit, remains to be seen.
However, alarming as the ban on women partaking in the seemingly innocent pleasure of dining in public is, this article today is not meant to comment on the shrinking space for women in our society. Instead, the aim here is to draw the attention of our policy makers, law enforcement agencies, and even our supposed ‘guardians of morality’ to another arena altogether, which should surely evoke mutual horror, even amidst the most divergent of perspectives.
It concerns the ‘hot spots’ of child abuse and commercial sexual exploitation hidden within our mainstream society, which require urgent attention so that something can be done about them. While this article cannot itself achieve this latter objective, it should at least help create some of the required awareness about the issue, as well as identify some potential means whereby this menacing phenomenon may be curbed.
This disturbing problem is not unique to Pakistan. According to UNICEF, the economic benefit associated with commercial sexual exploitation of children has led it to a global multibillion-dollar business. However, it is important to note that forms of this exploitation can wary significantly in different circumstances.
A former Intelligence Bureau official, during a presentation at an international conference some two years ago, highlighted the general silence concerning such abuse, with reference to the “Human Rights in Pakistan” report published by the recently formed Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, which had not recorded any observation about child sexual abuse in Pakistan. This omission was specially glaring given that the report did focus on a range of relevant child rights issues, such as the child labour problem and the juvenile justice system.
While some NGOs have produced documents specifically illustrating the reality of child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation, the problem remains largely hidden from public perception, or else it is openly denied. Since most issues related to sexuality are themselves shrouded in secrecy within our country, this resultant taboo seems to work to the advantage of the perpetrators whose victims rarely file a complaint, much less try to win a court battle.
NGOs working on this topic point out that whereas all children are vulnerable to abuse, regardless of sex, class, socio-economic position or educational level, certain groups of children are more vulnerable than others. These include children living on the street, refugee children, children working in low-cost hotels, restaurants, and those employed in the transport industry.
A Quetta-based NGO has identified nearly four dozen ‘hot spots’ of child exploitation, which included places like mini-cinemas, dark and dingy pool and video game shops, and even specialised brothels where children as young as 12 are found to be either at severe risk, or else are directly involved in some form of sexual abuse or exploitation.
Moreover, there are hundreds of young boys who work in the cheap hotels or sarais in the major bus stand areas of cities like Rawalpindi and Peshawar, who are also found to be engaging in commercial sex, because of which these places are also considered major hot spots.
Researchers who have worked on this issue on the ground have described how hotel owners employ children specifically to attract customers. Their potential clients can be men from all backgrounds, presumably travelling from one part of the country to another. Residents of areas surrounding these bus stand areas will readily point out sarais well known for offering these services. Yet nothing no action has been taken against such places.
Although there is insufficient comprehensive data concerning child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation within Pakistan, several social researchers, paediatricians and clinical psychologists concur that this is a widespread phenomenon. Incidents that are reported to the police, or reach the print or electronic media are mostly cases where abuse and exploitation have led to death or serious casualties, or else have taken some other heinous or sensational turn. The more ‘casual’ activities of abuse or sexual exploitation do not receive any attention at all despite the devastating impact that any such activity has on the mental and physical well being of the victimised children.
A constitutional petition was filed in the Balochistan High Court in 2007 asking relevant line departments to address the need for child protection and to also take specific action against hot spots of abuse. UNICEF is currently helping the Balochistan government draft a law modelled on one that has already been implemented in Punjab, which should provide the legal cover for initiating some proactive measures in this regard.
The Government in Punjab has in fact initiated several measures to address the multitudes of problem that face vulnerable children. It has passed the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children’s Act and opened up a Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB). Besides trying to rehabilitate runaway children, the CPWB must now begin to do more to tackle the problem of child sexual exploitation and abuse within the province.
In particular, immediate action is required to tackle this problem of hot spots. Selected sarais situated alongside the GT Road would be a good place to start the required surveillance for launching a subsequent crackdown. The CPWB itself also has the legal mandate to do this, since it is established under the Home Department, and there is an ‘exposure to seduction’ clause within the Punjab Neglected and Destitute Children’s Act which can be used by the CPWB to take action against those who operate these hot-spots of abuse, as well as against those potential perpetrators which are found to frequent such places.
Solid action in one province against evidently identified hot spots should provide the precedent and strengthen the case for similar steps being launched in other parts of the country. To help build the pressure for such action, it is necessary that more people recognise this problem, come forward to identify the places where it occurs, and use whatever influence they have to compel on-ground preventive measures, since nothing will happen by just wishing this horrific problem away.
The writer is a researcher. He can be contacted at ali@policy.hu
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